


whilst rome burns,

by transantula



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Gen, but i decided hey why not explore valkyrie's mental state, originally going to be a valitsa fic, short tho, suicide and death mentions i should warn, yeehaw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 06:48:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15903039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transantula/pseuds/transantula
Summary: 'it'll rain later,' valkyrie notes, looking outside her grimy apartment window.





	whilst rome burns,

'it'll rain later,' valkyrie notes, looking outside her grimy apartment window.

despite it’s glittering streets and it's typical clinical cleanliness, roarhaven continues to depress her. grey clouds swallow the sky, casting shadows upon the city. it's yellow brick road colours are dirty, and rot climbs up walls, sickly and desaturated. unable to hide it's blood soaked past.

she still thinks it strange, being here, back home. being with skulduggery. attempting to regain lost trust.

oh, the sharp whispers and knife edge glares still and will forever follow her. for wherever she roams, the crowds gather, rows of gravestones tied to each one. dozens of families she's buried underneath concrete. she knows what she's done. 

she grimaces and shakes her head, shutting the curtains more forcefully than was probably necessary. she sighs, and walks toward the kitchen, catching her eye on the mirror of the living room. 

leaning in, a mangled, sleep deprived little girl looks back at her. she looks closer, notices greasy hair and dry skin. she hasn't washed this body in a while. shes eerily reminded of being back in darquesse's mind. like a ghost looking in, shut out of someone's mind but forced to watch their own hands bloodied. she decides she doesn't like mirrors now, and turns it around.

"its not healthy, val," tanith's concerned tone rings in her head, "this hiding away, dwelling on the past. you need to look forward. at all the things you can save, the things you will save, things you can make right." she had said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, feeble attempt at a sibling's comfort. too distant now, hypocritical.

valkyrie had wondered briefly if she said that more for her own sake than val's, attempts to give valkyrie something she could not give herself.

in the kitchen with the kettle boiling, valkyrie picks at the acne on her face. there she finds herself wishing, not for the first time, that she herself had perished during the great fires. but she's not sure if valkyrie hadn't. if that what skulduggery had dragged from the pyres of rome was alive.

the kettle dings and she pours herself a mug of tea. and she thinks of skulduggery, wonders what it would be like, if it would not be until she is 6 ft under that would she finally look on the outside as she felt on the inside, that perhaps until the worms had made their homes in her body, that she would again find comfort and safety in her skin.


End file.
